While we like to bring talented producers and DJs to your attention in our Bristol and Brighton Spotlights, we’re certainly not limited to that. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be having a look at some labels, agencies and promotors who are also making important movements in both cities. After we started that new direction with Banoffee Pies a few weeks ago, next up is Sanctuary, consisting of four friends who throw parties to nurse their joint love affair with house and techno. Their next one is tomorrow night, so we thought it a good opportunity to catch up with them and have one of their residents, Pursuit, make a little mix for us.
For more info and tickets on Sanctuary presents Leftwing & Kody and Harry Wolfmann head to the Facebook event. Previous Spotlights guests Seka and Summits will also be there, alongside ForgetMeNot and Billy Disney.
Download Sanctuary’s Bristol Spotlight mix and follow us on Soundcloud to get updates when the tracklist goes live in a few days.
For those not familiar with Sanctuary, can you give a little introduction?
Sanctuary is a Bristol based club night with a musical focus on house and techno – we aim to showcase exciting talent from Bristol and around the UK. We are Josh, Harry, Cameron and Jack. Jack’s from London, but the rest of us are students living in Bristol. We hadn’t met as a four before Sanctuary started, but we all wanted to set up a night around the same time (early this year), so we got together and started everything up!
In a 30 second elevator pitch, what are Sanctuary parties about?
We play house and techno very loudly with a big smile on our face. Each party has its own distinct atmosphere – we don’t shy away from using décor, so each venue we use has a little ‘Sanctuary touch’, if you like. We have two residents (Harry and Jack) and each line-up we book has a strong Bristol contingent – Room 2 at our upcoming event is packed with local DJs who have caught our eye in the past few months. In a nutshell: We like to party, we like Bristol (lots) and we love house and techno!
As students who have recently come to Bristol, how important has the city and its musical culture and heritage been in forming Sanctuary?
Bristol is a great place for all things creative, but it was the vibrant music scene here that really inspired us to set up Sanctuary. There are some wicked record labels based here (we’re big fans of Futureboogie and Hypercolour), an abundance of unique venues and, most importantly, everyone here loves a good party!
There were already several established house and techno nights in Bristol before we set up Sanctuary, but we endorsed a sort of ‘the more the merrier’ attitude and just got on with it. We didn’t want to copy nights that were already in Bristol, so it was important for us to do things our own way, because at the end of the day that’s half the fun of it!
We started out with a fairly small budget, so we thought we would try and showcase some of our favourite local talent alongside one or two handpicked names from elsewhere for their Bristol debut. That way we would bring something new to the city as well as helping to promote the local talent which we felt wasn’t getting enough attention.
So yeah, if it wasn’t for the abundance of relatively undiscovered musical talent in Bristol, we probably wouldn’t have set up Sanctuary in the first place.
Have there been any nights that have been particularly important in this?
All events run by Just Jack, Shapes, and Shambarber have all been big inspirations for us. They’re all great at what they do.
Is there any local talent that you’re really feeling at the moment?
There’s so much! But to name a few:
Admin: A trip to Idles Hands earlier in the year saw us discover his release on Boogiefuturo…PHWWOARR!!! We also loved ‘This World’ that was released on Glasgow Underground. Tom Rio: His unreleased belter ‘The Plan’ was played on Hypercolours’ Rinse FM show and we were gobsmacked to say the least! He’s also just revealed 2 collaborative tracks under the alias Rio & Prest… ‘Was It Good For You’ is our personal favourite. Seka: A wicked DJ with some very original productions to his name. We’ve been into him for quite some time now. Check out his ‘Pangolin EP’ on Shewolf Music. Summits: Still unsigned (we think?!) but they’ve got such an ear for a good melody and the production on their tracks is superb. They played for us alongside Seka earlier this year at Motion. Shanti Celeste: her recent release on BRSTL is the nuts! Oh, and Bristol heavyweights Waifs & Strays’s recent remix of Hector Coutu’s I Believe is fucking great! Out now on Lost Records.
You’re next event is coming up this week. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
Yes. This Friday (18th October) we’re hosting an event at Lakota for the first time and we’re super excited! We’ve got the colossal Leftwing & Kody headlining, with support in the main room coming from Harry Wolfman (who’s productions we’ve been obsessed with for quite some time) and the aforementioned Seka. In our ‘strictly Bristol’ Room 2 we’ve got Billy Disney, ForgetMeNot and Summits. They’ve all played for us before and each time it was awesome.
As always we’ll be adding our ‘Sanctuary touch’ with décor and some hilariously charming visuals. At £5 a ticket it would be rude not to!
Anything else to look out for, further in the future?
Many, many more parties in Bristol. A London based event. A headliner from overseas.
